Virgin Media Cancellation time again

Seeing as Openreach haven't installed FTTP, and no altnets available either I'm stuck between VM and a poor VDSL service, and as VM have just whacked my price up due to my contract ending its cancellation time again.

I was paying £39.40 for M350, when I phoned to cancel they offered £40 which will of course go up in April, so I said no, just cancel in 30 days please.

So I now await a phone call to see what they will offer. (marketing calls are enabled).

Any idea how long it normally takes them to call?

Second question, the wife could sign up as a new customer M350 for £30 or M500 for £33, how long does a new sign up take?

Final question, any point in switching her mobile to 02, she currently pays £3.99 on Lebara?

Edit:

With regard to the last point, it may be worth getting the cheapest o2 sim which seems to be £6.99 on the comparison sites, then we'd get a boost to the next broadband package for a few quid.

Edited by R0NSKI (Sat 27-Jan-24 17:08:26)

Retentions phoned today, didn't get a mega good deal, same package but after April's prices hikes I should be just below what I was paying, I'm happy with that, saves any hassle.

I should have really tried for a speed boost, but what I have is plenty fast enough, just would of been handy to be on the next tier up for negotiations in 18 months time.

A bit late to reply but I believe your wife can sign up as a new customer and it should a quick process. As for yourself, I also believe it's 3 months between leaving and joining up again to be a "new customer".
As for the £30 for M350, I pay less than that from a November 2022 Black Friday sale and it had no "April" RPI increase. However I did leave for 3 months to jump ship, but had to come back, but the BF deal was less than half the price I was paying and also nearly twice the speed.
I detest this whole "new" customer lark with a vengeance and the massive RPI increases VM force on people. I'm due to cancel this April and I'll most likely go to some 12 month FTTP ISP and say goodbye to VM.

If I had FTTP available I would not be with VM, I also detest the high prices, and the need to cancel just to get a good deal. Oh, and don't get me started on the pitiful telephone support should I have an issue, its best to just use the forums.

With OR FTTP there is such a wide choice of ISP's its super easy to get a good deal and switch.

My brother has community fibre £25 a month for 1 Gig up and down, only issue is its CGNAT.

Lets see where we are in 18 months time.

I had the you've been a loyal customer phone call yesterday, trying to bump me up a level, add a sim and TV package for £43 a month with no price rise until April 2025. I declined and said email the offer, but they never do.

Anyway last night I thought I'd log in and check things, currently paying £34 and due to rise to about £37, so I checked out the upgrade offers.

Ended up upgrading to M500, which was an additional £2.24 a month on my current price, BUT no price rises until April 2025, effectively a free speed bump and I call that a win.

My negotiations were a nightmare ronski.

I had a email offer which I originally though was £36, but was £55, up selling me some wifi rubbish I had no interest in, I clicked not interested, it then changed to £45 for my current package (which is currently £29), I clicked not interested, it then changed to final offer of £41, which I thought a while about, not an affordability issue, but I ended up clicking no thinking surely that £41 is at least always going to be there as some kind of backup policy.

I then later rang retentions, it was offshore, the guy was getting confused a lot and struggling to even speak english. But after a lot of haggling, the best offer was yet another upsell, of a load of TV channels added I have no interest in, combined with my volt 500 (so paying for O2 sim to boost to gig1), for £55. Way worse than the automated offer.

I told him to remove the upsell, and standalone gig1 changed to 70 something pounds lol, this was again volt, so requiring a nearly £20 a month sim on top. What a retention deal!!!!.

The offers I think were so bad, I genuinely thought they must not be volt surely, I asked him twice if the O2 sim is required, he initially didnt answer confused, but then said yes the second time.

I then told him what was available on cityfibre, and no attempt made at all, other than to say VM are better quality and I would have to pay install fees to move, that was the new tact at that point.

I felt almost insulted at the offers so rage cancelled lol. In my notice period.

This was last Monday and no outbound retentions call to me, I do have marketing turned on.

The £41 link is now dead, invalidated by what happened on the call I guess. Also still suspect his 2 offers were not volt. Over £70 for 500mbit is higher even than standard list price I think.

Edited by Chrysalis (Mon 15-Apr-24 20:21:16)

As you know I've been with VM for quite a while now, some years its been really difficult to get a decent contract renewal deal, and I always end up giving 30 days notice, and then at some point I get a call with a fairly good offer.

The call I had a week or two back was trying to up sell stuff I just didn't need, and they said they couldn't remove it or the cost would go up, strange how I found a better deal on my account without all the extra's.

Was nice to find the upgrade offer which basically got me a free speed upgrade, and swerved the April price increase. I may at some point shift my wife onto an o2 SIM, but I really don't need 1 GIG

I'm sure you will get a call sooner or later, some years I've had to wait almost until the 30 days is up.

Edited by R0NSKI (Mon 15-Apr-24 20:29:10)

Oddly for me, every time I click on that my deals section in the my virgin media page, it would take me to a page explaining April price rises, no offers at all, and this was before I cancelled as well, also seen someone else report the same thing.

I am curious of course if I do get a call before 30 days, and seems I will be getting cityfibre soon anyway, but I am open to keeping VM as well, if they come up with something nice. As the service has been very good to be fair, a complete turnaround on my previous experiences with the ISP.

Will share here if the offer comes.

Bugs me that we have to go through this charade every 18 months.
I got the original ultimate oomph with 1G broadband, everything TV/sports with the included O2 sim for £95/Month (£25 O2 and £70 Virgin).

Renewed last time and stuck to my guns to keep the same deal as I signed up to (this was when we were allowed to cancel when the April rises were imposed), took a few calls but I got what I wanted.

August 23 did the same again, but ended up moving the O2 sim to a £8 30Gb uswitch deal (doubled data to 60Gb with Volt), and with the same BB/TV package (including BT/TNT sport. Sky sports UHD) for £65.

Going on what friends have been telling me about their recent renewals I was VERY lucky to get this.

CityFibre are finally live here, but it looks like very low take up at the moment (only 2 installs I have seen when out and about), and judging on the letters and emails they are pushing hard to get users onboard. I would have gone to them, but the deal we have is just too good, and I really cant complain about the connection at the moment.

Contract ends Feb 25, so the game will start again!

All I can advise is to check what's available to new customers, and the competition. Make it clear to the retentions team that you want that and nothing less, be prepared to leave if they don't offer your request, you have until the last day of your notice period to cancel and stay online, you can always cancel again!

Cityfibre had a £200 cashback which I registered on, but sadly its apparently been ceased since end of March, otherwise I would try to find the link to share with you.

Your advice is pretty much what I did with the rage cancellation. They wasnt even close to it.